Writing a Business Proposal for your Salon

Sarah Flutey
Head of Marketing at Timely
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Without a business proposal, you’ll have a lot of trouble trying to find a bank and/or investors that will take you seriously.

Confused on where to start?

Don’t worry!

We’ve done the hard research for you, and discovered the perfect strategy to build a business proposal that will wow investors and will bring you that much closer to owning your dream salon.

What is a business proposal anyway?

When creating a business proposal for your salon, think of it more as a sales letter that you’re sending to prospective buyers in order to get them more interested in purchasing your product. It’s basically your salon’s business strategy in a nutshell.

You’re need to fill it with enough information to convince your buyer that your business has a clear plan for reaching profits as well as showing off a strong understanding of the strategies necessary to reach success in your field.

Consider this example, you really need to sell your old car in order to purchase a new minivan for your children.

So you put up an ad on multiple car sites with a product description detailing every good thing about the car and explaining why it’s a great purchase.

Think of your business proposal as all of the information you’ll need to share to sell a car.

What’s the first step?

Before doing anything else, you need to sit down and come up with a strong executive summary that provides an overview of your business proposal. It should quickly touch on important points as well as providing your mission statement and philosophies on customer service.

Take a look at the about page for Moha Hairdressers, they explain their location, the services they provide, along with the events they specialize in.

This is a small example of how you would explain your services and mission statement to a potential investor in your business proposal.

Make sure to also go into detail when describing your products & services, this means stating whether you’ll be appointment only or if you’ll also serve walk-ins. You also need to list all of your provided services (hair, nails, spa, etc.)

Let’s talk finances!

This means very specific information on the costs for:

  • The rent for the space that will be used for the salon.
  • The equipment needed to run the salon.
  • The software used to manage the salon & schedule appointments.
  • Wages for employees (if you’re planning on having any) along with how many people you plan to employ straight away.
  • Any and all costs related to your marketing strategy (this includes website design and any promotional materials).

The next step in your business proposal is to discuss your financial strategy for your salon and to convince these investors that you have the fiscal knowledge to grow & keep a thriving salon business open.

In addition, make sure to include financial statements spanning at least three years in your business proposal. This entails having an idea of how fast your customer base will grow along with how many people you plan (& hope!) to serve.

women writing business proposal

How do you plan on getting the word out?

Now it’s time to focus on how exactly you plan on getting the word out along with how much each step is going to cost. A salon’s marketing strategy is going to vary widely depending on many factors like location, the target demographic, etc.

Also, don’t leave out tidbits like incentive programs or ‘refer a friend’ discounts that work to keep customers coming back.

For example, a salon in upscale Manhattan may want to invest in targeted social media ads while a salon in a suburban neighborhood may want to invest more in promotional materials to be displayed around their neighborhoods and nearby events.

Why should an investor trust you with their money?

Even with detailed descriptions of your business proposal and marketing strategies, you still need to make the investor comfortable with the idea of working with you as a person.

That’s why you should include a thorough biography of your professional background as well as any of the stylists on your team.

Get to it!

Now that you know all of the essentials of creating your own salon business proposal, go ahead and get started so that you’ll be one step closer to reaching your goal of owning your own salon. Any work you’ve managed to do before seeking funding will show potential investors just how keen you are to get started, and why they should trust you with their money. For more advice from business owners who have done all this before, check out this blog post.

Good luck!

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